Medica Technology Preview

Medica 2011, the international trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany, is right around the corner (Nov. 16-19).  Event organizers say this year’s meeting will showcase more than 10,500 new products by exhibitors.
 
Medical device connectivity is an increasingly important topic—linking technology from caregivers at a patient’s bedside—perhaps in a home-care setting—to a physician’s office or an electronic medical record or transmitting images for diagnostic evaluation.

For example, at this year’s event, a new patient monitoring system from Philips Healthcare promises process optimization for physicians and patients. It aims to solve the growing need for hospitals to closely monitor the patients’ health after they have been moved out intensive care. For economic reasons, intensive-care patients tend to be moved to normal wards sooner, thus creating demanding challenges for the nursing staff. Philips has developed a compact, mobile monitoring system that relieves hospital staff from the task of doing routine check-ups every few hours. The system automatically compares the relevant vital data with defined target values and has a system of warning lights to indicate if the patient requires special attention.
 
Deutsche Telekom is unveiling a project for healthcare in rural areas using telemedicine. In addition to other products, the company will highlight its cardiac insufficiency telemedicine workplace. With a user-friendly device, the patient records data such as ECG, blood pressure and weight. The parameters are sent with Bluetooth via a base station and an Internet connection directly to the patient’s electronic medical file at a connected telemedicine center. There, the data is monitored and the appropriate action taken. The device provider and technical partner working with Telekom is German firm Getemed (also an exhibitor at Medica).

Another innovation presented this year is an impedance tomography device from Dräger that makes ventilation processes and their affects on the lung visible, allowing for improved control options and more precise adjustment of the ventilator.

So far, there are 4,560 exhibitors and 1.2 million square feet of booked exhibit space, an increase compared with last year, show organizers reported. Two-thirds of the exhibitors are from outside of Germany, and more than 60 countries will be represented.

For more information, visit www.medica-tradefair.com.